1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is an oscillating blower that includes an air discharge for cyclically impinging high velocity air onto and into the canopy of a fruit or nut tree thereby providing a novel method for shaking the limbs of a tree and create the same shaking action as a tree shaker by oscillating the blower at a selected proper frequency. The oscillating blower not only shakes the limbs to remove the nuts or fruit but also dislodges the nuts or fruits by blowing them off the supporting stems. The oscillating blower also removes residual fruit or nuts that were not harvested during the normal harvesting operation such as when a conventional tree shaker is used for dislodging the fruit or nuts from the tree. The residual fruit or nuts left on the tree by a tree shaker frequently become infested with worms or other pests that may infest the fruit or nut tree and adversely affect the crop produced during the next growing season. In the fruit and nut growing and harvesting industry, the fruit and nuts left on a tree after harvesting by shaking the tree are generally referred to as "mummys" and, as indicated above, it is important to remove the "mummys" during the winter season.
2. Background of the Invention
When harvesting nuts and fruits, tree shakers are used to separate the nuts and fruits from the tree by gripping the tree trunk and mechanically shaking the entire tree at a proper frequency and amplitude. Certain types of nut or fruit trees, especially young trees, are prone to suffer trunk and root damage when harvested with a conventional tree shaker. The tree shaking harvesting operation does not remove all nuts and fruit thus leaving a small amount of residual nuts or fruits, commonly referred to as "mummys" on the trees. If the "mummys" are not removed, they become infested with worms or other pests and adversely affect the next years crop. Currently, the method of removal of the residual nuts and fruits is to await a period of damp and foggy weather which normally occurs during the winter months and the growers then use their tree shakers to remove the "mummys" from the tree. It is necessary to wait until winter and foggy weather inasmuch as the "mummys" will only loosen when they are damp with moisture in order for the tree shaking operation to be effective.
A long existing problem of the current procedure for harvesting or removing "mummys" is that the tree shakers cannot get into the orchard and move along a row of trees when the soil is wet inasmuch as the tree shakers are relatively heavy and tend to tear up the ground when it is damp or wet and in some instances can become mired or stuck in mud thus requiring the use of a tractor or other towing vehicle to tow the tree shaker thus causing further damage to the orchard area.